It’s (not) Friday, Friday in Samoa tomorrow

There won’t be a Friday in Samoa, the tiny Pacific island nation, tomorrow, or in neighboring Tokelau. They’re going from Thursday straight into Saturday, just this once.

Samoa is east of the International Date Line, putting it in sync with the United States. But it would be more economically efficient to align itself, timewise, with trading partners in the region, such as Australia and New Zealand.

At the stroke of midnight on Dec. 29, time in Samoa and Tokelau will leap forward to Dec. 31 — New Year’s Eve. For Samoa’s 186,000 citizens, and the 1,500 in Tokelau, Friday, Dec. 30, 2011, will simply cease to exist.

The time jump back to the future comes 119 years after some U.S. traders persuaded local Samoan authorities to align their islands’ time with nearby U.S.-controlled American Samoa and the U.S. to assist their trading with California.

But the time zone has proved problematic in recent years, putting Samoa and Tokelau nearly a full day behind neighboring Australia and New Zealand, increasingly important trading partners.

There is some fallout. For instance, Samoa’s small Seventh Day Adventist Church traditionally begins celebrations for the Sabbath on Friday night and continues through Saturday.

And about all the employees who normally work on Friday? They will be paid for work on a day that technically will never exist.